Disclosure Ref: 9

Football related offences between 2016 and 2017

Freedom of Information Act 2000 Request

Request

I copy your request in italics below for ease of reference:

‘How many cases of football-related offences, broken down by region, were referred to the CPS in the years 2016/7?

Of those, how many resulted in successful prosecution?

How many applications, broken down by region, were made to courts for football banning orders in the years 2016/17?

Of those, how many were successful? Please state length of ban.

YOUTHS

How many cases of football-related offences in youths (under 18), broken down by region, were referred to the CPS in the year 2016/17?

How many applications, broken down by region, were made to courts for football banning orders for youths in the year 2016/17?

How many football banning orders, broken down by region, were issued to youths (under 18) in 2016/17?’

Response

In order to determine the number of pre-charge referrals by specific offence or circumstance such as ‘football related’, it would require a manual review of 283,000 pre-charge decisions the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) made in 2015-16. As a result, it would engage the cost limit set out in section 12 of FOI Act.

Section 12(1) of the Act means public authorities are not obliged to comply with a request for information if it estimates the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit for central government it is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 working days determining whether the department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

We believe that the cost of manually reviewing all 283,000 case files to determine the information required would exceed the appropriate limit. Consequently, we are not obliged to comply with this part of your request.

Under section 16 of the FOI Act we have an obligation to advise what, if any, information may assist you with your request. Please see the attached spreadsheet and accompanying caveats. The table displays the number of offences occurring at football and/or sporting events which were charged and reached a first hearing at the magistrates’ courts. The data disclosed goes as far as December 2016 which is in line with the CPS policy of publishing data a quarter in arrears; once adequate assurance of that data has been carried out.

However, in order to determine the outcome of the prosecution and whether the defendants were adults or youths, this would require a manual review of the 327 cases in the attached spreadsheet. Similarly, we believe that the cost of manually reviewing 327 case files to determine this information would exceed the appropriate cost limit. Therefore, we are not obliged to comply with this part of your request.

Information Management Unit 020 3357 0899 FOI.Unit@cps.gsi.gov.uk